Broken of Fire (The Cloud Warrior Saga Book 9)

by D. K. Holmberg

  “They have been found. They will require work to restore.”

  “How?” Helles asked. “They have been lost for…” He frowned, almost as if trying to count the years. “Centuries. They have been gone for centuries.”

  “And here the entire time,” Elanne said. “That is why there is no Mistress of Souls. Marin hid them and used something of the power of the Records to try to harm the Utu Tonah.”

  The others on the council turned to Tan. He shook his head. “Not the Utu Tonah any longer,” he said. “As part of this, I would claim a different title. I do not yet know what it means. I will still lead the council, but would like regular meetings. I would ask your input. And, in time, the council will be allowed to rule as it once had.”

  That was as much as he could offer for now. Not more than that because he didn’t know whether he could trust the councilors to rule wisely. Not yet. They were still tied to tightly to Par-shon and had not regained the understanding that they served the people of Par.

  “What title?” Helles asked.

  “Maelen,” Elanne said. “He would have us call him Maelen.”

  The council turned to him at the announcement, but it was brief. They almost immediately resumed talking quickly and quietly.

  Tan smiled and turned away, but not before seeing Elanne watching him, shaking her head as she did.

  Leaving the room, he made his way through the tower. Tolman hurried to keep up with him, falling into stride when he did.

  “You really intend to do this,” Tolman said.

  Tan nodded. “More than that. I intend to name a new Master of Souls.”

  Tolman nearly stumbled. “Master? No, Maelen,” he said, his tongue stumbling over the title almost as much as his feet stumbled on the tile, “there has only ever been a Mistress of Souls. The people expect to follow her. I understand that you have reservations after what Marin had done, but you would change too much.”

  Tan wanted to allow Par to return to what it had been, but if Marin and those who had come before her were tied together, there was a risk that he would be forced to face her again. Using a Master of Souls would help circumvent that. He hoped.

  “Besides, who would you choose?” Tolman asked.

  Tan paused. At least Tolman was willing to give the idea a chance, even if he didn’t want to admit that was what he did. “Maclin.”

  Tolman sucked in a sharp breath. “That… that might work,” he said softly, and mostly to himself. “He is known to most within the faith, and he is well respected. Enough so that others would not think he was forced upon them, at least not too much.”

  That had been what Tan hoped. Maclin had provided Tan with guidance since arriving in Par, and he hoped that the man would be willing to serve, but then, he hadn’t asked. He had needed to work out what he would do with the council first.

  One problem at a time. Now that he had asked the council to reconvene, he would need to approach Maclin as well.

  At least, if this worked, he would have less to worry about with ruling in Par. He could focus on the other issues that he had at hand and begin to work through them one at a time. That was the only way that he would be able to find a solution. And some, like the darkness that had attacked Asgar, didn’t have a solution that he could find just yet.

  “Where now?” Tolman asked.

  They stopped on the students’ level and Tan hurried forward. “Now is back to teaching. The people of Par deserve to have their shapers learn.”

  “You have time to teach?”

  He didn’t, and wasn’t sure that his request would be answered, but he had to try. “Some. I’ve been working with Molly,” he said. And she had continued to show promise. Now she could spark easily, and with her connection to saa, the sparks quickly turned to flames. Dangerous, especially if he wasn’t there to assist, and though he didn’t think that saa would harm her, he didn’t know what she might do to others were she unleashed. So he had asked her to refrain from shaping without him present and had made a request to saa to avoid joining the fire when she called it. At least for now. The only problem was that Tan wasn’t sure that either would listen.

  “You cannot provide such dedicated time to each student, Maelen. I have seen the way you work with the draasin, and I know that there are other issues that trouble you, though I do not know what they might be. There is only so much of you to go around.”

  Tan took a deep breath and nodded. That was the same concern that Amia had, worrying that he would stretch himself too thin and worrying that he attempted to do too much, in spite of the fact that she had been the one who had pushed him to return to Par and who had wanted him to take on this challenge. Without her urging, he would have left Par-shon alone. And what would have happened if he had? What would Marin had done in his absence?

  When he opened the door, he was surprised to hear a familiar voice.

  Zephra glanced over at him when he entered. “Now you will practice,” she said to the gathered students.

  They each nodded.

  Zephra came over to him, her gaze lingering on Tolman before she turned her attention back to Tan. “You summoned and left this,” she said, pulling the summoning rune coin from a pocket and handing it back to him, “on the table there.”

  “I thought that I might be able to get here before you,” he said.

  “Before me,” she said and gazed at the students.

  They were of varying ages, and from what Tan had determined, the students had varying levels of connection to the elements. None were quite as strong as what he’d detected with Molly, and he suddenly wondered if maybe she had the potential to become a warrior. Before Tan, there hadn’t been a warrior in many years. He had been the first since Roine, or maybe Cora. Tan still didn’t know when she had developed her abilities, only that she was younger than Roine.

  But this group was what Par had to offer. Willing students, and those who Tan had worked to encourage to understand what could be learned when you didn’t force the elementals to bind.

  “You intended for me to teach?” she asked.

  “I had hoped that you would be willing,” Tan said. “I would like to have the others as well. I think these students could learn much from our shapers.”

  His mother frowned, the corner of her mouth wrinkling with the motion. “But Tannen, you could send them to the university. They would learn all that they need there. That is how training shapers has always been done.”

  Tan shook his head. That had been his plan at first, but then he realized that could not be. Not if he wanted to give Par a chance for a future free of him, and free of the kingdoms. Shaping was not something confined to the kingdoms. They were skilled, but no less so than the shapers of Chenir, or those he had discovered in Doma, and even the fire shapers of Incendin.

  Besides, his mother should know better than most what happened when shapers were trained outside their homeland. Coming from Doma, she had no ties to the kingdoms when she had come to learn. But learning came with a requirement of service. Even if Roine waived it, and Tan suspected that he would, the Par student’s time in the kingdoms would change them. Living and learning in Ethea had changed him, and he had only come from the surrounding countryside. How much would these children, the hope of Par, be changed? And how many would choose not to return, simply to remain in the kingdoms?

  “Par needs her shapers here,” Tan said.

  “And what?” his mother asked. “You would have our shapers come here to teach?”

  “Not only ours,” he said. When he had summoned his mother, he had sent out a request to Cora and to Elle, and in time, he intended to bring shapers from Chenir as well. He would make this a place of learning and understanding, a place where shapers understood and appreciated the elementals. A place where others would want to come.

  But first, they had to learn to shape.

  “Is that wise, Tannen?” She leaned in and her voice dropped to a whisper. It took a shaping of wind to carry the words to him clearly.
“These people were our enemies all of a few months ago. You would teach them the power of shaping?” She caught his eye. “By coming to the kingdoms, they will learn to appreciate our shapers; they will come to know our skills. We can have Chenir come to the university as well. I know that Ferran would like the same. And if you really want it, we will have Elle or Vel come from Doma.”

  “And Incendin?” Tan asked. “Will you welcome Incendin into the university to teach?”

  His mother tensed. “You know what you ask. Much as you already know my answer.”

  Tan nodded and glanced at Tolman who was attempting to make it seem like he didn’t listen, but Tan noted the attention that he gave to the wall. “I am trying to create something better here. These students, these children, have done nothing. Most of Par did nothing. It was the bonded shapers, those the Utu Tonah had forced and coerced into helping. And they are gone.”

  She watched him for a moment and shook her head. “You have become a stubborn man, Tannen.”

  Tan laughed. “I wonder where I got that from.”

  “Yes. I wonder.” She took a deep breath and let it out in a sigh. “I will do this. I cannot promise how Theondar will react, but perhaps I will not tell him right away.”

  Tan smiled. “He should know.”

  “Yes. He should know,” she agreed. “Now. When I am done with this, where will I find you?”

  Tan pointed to one of the taller students, a boy by the name of Henrak. Asgar had given him a scare when Tan first decided to teach and work with the students of Par, and he had become much more obliging. “Henrak will show you to me.”

  Zephra nodded and turned back to the class.

  As Tan stepped from the room, he heard her lesson continue, and smiled. Maybe this would work. He could get the council more authority, and he would be able to find teachers for the students of Par. That left him with fewer tasks on his plate, and less to worry about.

  “She speaks sharply to you, Maelen,” Tolman said as they walked through the tower. “Do all in the kingdoms speak to you in the same way?”

  Tan laughed and shook his head. “Not all. Only my mother.”

  Tolman gasped softly. “Mother. Then that would make her Zephra.”

  He nodded.

  “I thought… I thought that she did not survive the separation.”

  Tan stopped and caught Tolman by the arm. “You were there?”

  Tolman hesitated before nodding.

  “You probably should not ever tell her that,” Tan said. “I would not want to be there when she learned.”

  Tolman’s eyes widened. “Of course, Maelen. But if I may ask, how was it that she survived?”

  “I healed her.”

  As Tan said it, Tolman stumbled again and had to hurry to keep up.

  15

  A REQUEST OF MAELEN

  Tan settled into his seat near the fire in the library. Amia sat across from him, flipping through the pages of one of the books she’d pulled from the shelves, attempting to appear as if she really had interest in anything that she saw on the page. Tan simply stared at the flames, occasionally shaping them, but for the most part letting the fire flicker as it chose.

  The draasin settled on his lap. She shifted, lifting her head before moving in a tight circle to find a comfortable spot, and then set her head down on his legs. Tan patted her on the top of the head, noting the softness of her spikes. They had softened in the time since she’d been born. What else would change with her? How much change could she handle before she became something other than a draasin?

  She unfolded her wings—wings that were so small and stunted for her body—and flicked them at him. Not so much to attempt to fly, but more out of something like annoyance as she tried to smack him.

  Tan chuckled and patted her again.

  Amia looked up, folding the book down in her lap. “When did you intend to tell me that you’d summoned them?”

  Tan sighed and rested his hands on the draasin. She pressed through his steepled hands, thrusting her snout so that she could see. “I should have.”

  Amia nodded. “You think to unburden yourself.”

  Tan nodded. “That, and more.”

  Amia flicked her eyes to the draasin and frowned. She stared at the hatchling for a moment and then turned her attention back to Tan. “She is more… aware… than I would have expected.”

  Tan glanced at the hatchling. She licked her lips and then started running her tongue over him as well, leaving a sticky residue that he’d discovered didn’t come off easily. Most of the time, he wiped it on his cloak, but he’d taken that off when coming into the library, so he wiped it on his pants and his shirt.

  “She is,” Tan agreed. “And each day she grows even more so.”

  “Was it like that with Honl?”

  “Honl made a point of disappearing for a while,” Tan said. Really, he’d made a point of disappearing all the time, but Tan couldn’t blame him for that. Honl had needed to understand what he was meant to be, and that required that he learn what spirit had in store for him. How much longer would he remain away? And how much would he have changed by the time he eventually made it back? Tan had little doubt that his bonded wind elemental would eventually make his way back, but when? What would it take for him to decide to return?

  “This one… I can sense something about her.”

  “Spirit,” Tan said. “She connects to it. Or shapes it. I’m not sure which it is, only that I’m aware of when she does.”

  Does it matter which, Maelen? Is the end result not the same?

  I can shape, and I can connect to the elementals to access their strength. I think that is different, at least when it comes to the power of the Mother.

  You reach the fire bond. That is no different than the draasin.

  Are you saying that there is a bond for the other elements? None of the elementals had ever implied that there was such a bond, but then, Tan had never been as tightly bound to the other elementals as he was to fire. Maybe that was the difference.

  “I can almost hear her,” Amia said.

  “I think,” Tan said, patting the draasin’s head, “that she would not let you if she did not intend for you to hear her.”

  “You can’t really believe that she’s already so powerful as to choose who she connects to.”

  As if to answer, the hatching pressed her head forward toward Amia and breathed out a streamer of smoke and the slightest hint of flame. Then she licked Tan’s hand.

  He shook his head and wiped his hand on his clothes again. You have to stop doing that.

  You should thank me.

  For trying to eat me?

  You don’t taste nearly so good as you think that you do, Maelen.

  Tan looked over to Amia and shrugged. “I think she understands exactly what she’s doing. Maybe not so much the why, but she’s certainly aware enough to choose.”

  Amia studied the hatchling. Shaping built from her, but Tan sensed it differently, muted in some ways. When it eased, Amia only frowned. “I… I don’t sense anything like I did.”

  Tan leaned forward, ignoring the quiet protests from the draasin as he did, and reached for Amia’s hand. “Was it like that for other shapers? Have you asked any others of the People?”

  “Who could I ask? There hasn’t been anyone else with a bond like we share, Tan. What happened between us… I think it’s a reflection of your ability with spirit, but the bond that formed, that is nothing like any of the People have ever experienced.”

  Tan wished that she had more answers than that. Losing the connection between them was bad enough, but he would like to know whether it was temporary or whether the pregnancy had forever altered something between them. And if it had, was there anything that they could do to restore it?

  “When will she visit us?” Amia asked.

  “Probably soon. She was working with the students, and I left her there. I don’t know how long she will stay.” Thinking of his mother teaching left conflict
ing emotions within him. She had only taught him after he had demonstrated that he would be able to shape each of the elements, and even then, she had not been a willing instructor. But at the same time, he wanted her to have the opportunity to work with the students. They could learn much from a shaper like her.

  Amia nodded and turned her attention to the book on her lap.

  There had been a time—not that long ago—when he would have known immediately what she was reading and why. Now he didn’t have that knowledge and had to rely on reading her body language. At least he had known her for long enough that he could do that, but it was not the same as knowing her mood and sharing in it.

  He sighed and petted the draasin as he stared at the fire. There was so much that he needed to be doing, but he couldn’t get himself motivated to start. Other than checking on Asgar and the other two hatchlings, everything else required that he travel away from Par, and Tan didn’t want to do that while his mother was here, at least until he had the chance to speak with her. He could imagine all too well how Zephra would react if he did.

  But sitting here, staring at the flames, helped him feel connected in some way. Tan couldn’t explain what it was, but over the last few weeks, he had felt a growing disconnect to each of the elementals, not only to Honl. Kota ranged throughout Par, searching for the hybrid elementals and studying them on his behalf. His connection to the nymid was different here. Muted, much like his connection to Amia. And then fire. With everything that had been happening, he had been working within the fire bond, but he had not taken the time to simply be in it.

  There was a peace to staying within fire. And Tan needed that peace right now. He needed the centering. Were he honest with himself, what he really needed was a way to reach Asboel, if only the memory of Asboel. The one time that he had, Tan had been given something like understanding. Not enlightenment, but a sort of knowledge about what Fire really meant. And that had given him peace.

  When the knock on the door came, it pulled him from his reverie. Fire seemed to bend toward him briefly, almost as if in a bow, and then crackled freely in the hearth once more.